Thanks guys...This feels like an Alfheim support group.
Nemesis556 said:
This is my last Umbran Tear of Blood and I just can't fucking do it no matter how much I try. I get to the Joys with all 7 torture attacks and then they just rape me.
To speed up the process, I equip Eternal Testimony, for what it's worth.
You're doing better than me - I usually don't make it past the second wave...The few times I have, I've been whittled down to one unit of health. The only time I made it to wave 3 with all three chunks of health I didn't have too much difficulty with the Joys - just the damn clock. I'm taking too long with wave 2.
Jeo said:
The Bracelet of Time accessory paired with Eternal Testimony works great against those three joys.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19328837&postcount=4861
I always equip Eternal Testimony along with the Moon of Awesome Parries. Moon saved my life against a wave 2 Fearless once, but I don't have the skill to use it reliably on Joys yet. I might try the Bangle tactic next time I hit wave 3, but the few times I've played with it it's felt very clumsy. I need to get used to attacking while holding LB. My brain wants to tap it and have WT play out like it would if I hit the dodge button.
I went back and read your post along with Monocle's earlier tonight, and gave it another couple of shots. Using the angel arms pole-spin attack does a lot of damage to anything in its radius in wave 2, but I keep getting caught by the nearest Fearless as soon as witch time finishes. I need to time it better and get out of the way before the attack ends.
Korey said:
I haven't even attempted hard yet, but have you tried using the whip on the fire dudes? For the Torture Attack alfheims on normal, the whip was a godsend. Ignores fire, auto-aims from across the room, and builds magic really fast with the gaze of despair. So just take care of your torture quota and then you can focus on killing the rest normally.
The whip works well against fire angels most of the time (I think I used it on the Normal TA Alfheim too), but it doesn't build magic as fast as the handguns, and does too much damage against the weaker flaming enemies in wave 1 - they die before I can hit the torture attack. The trick is keeping them alive while you wear down the Ardor with combos that do minimal damage yet fill up the magic meter, and then insta-killing them with a TA before they catch too many stay bullets. I'd try the whip on wave 2, but the Bazillions let me attack from a greater distance, and the laser charge shot does a good bit more damage.
Rez said:
In the end it was a mix of luck, skill and a last-minute magic recharge that got me through the challenge. The only advice I can give is to remember that when in witch-time, you get a shit-load of magic through a relatively quick PK combo if you hold down the button after every attack punch/kick.
I know it'll be like this for me too. Next time I play I'll probably die a dozen times on wave 2, then suddenly pull off a massive win the first or second time I hit wave 3. I just hope the serendipity hits sooner rather than later. You're dead right about holding the button on combos. With the handguns it takes exactly one punch (hold) and one kick (hold) in witch-time to fill five orbs. Add on the two I start with thanks to Eternal Testimony and the one I got from starting witch-time before the combo, and I'm one WT and one hold-strike away from a TA. The only reason I use the handguns rather than Scarborough Fair is because they restrain me from accidentally firing off a wicked weave. I've unintentionally blown through an Ardor or Fairness in wave 2 on a few occasions because I was trying to combo my way to some magic, and forgot that a given string ended in a wicked weave if I was using anything but the handguns. I thought they were useless at first, but they've proven invaluable for Alfheims.
Apologies for the massive post, but I really appreciated all the advice. Been a while since I've been stuck on a game that other people were playing at the same time.
Just so I can feel like I'm giving something back - I picked up the Bangle of Time earlier today, and that thing is
easy to unlock. I even got the total time under 3 hours with a couple of 20+ minute long, bloated Platinum stages that I didn't need to redo. Final time was 2:47. Blast through every chapter that's over ten minutes in panther mode, and don't stop to fight until you hit a golden barrier. It's been re-iterated a few times, but in case anyone is still wondering: time in between verses
does count towards the stage total. Stage total is verse time
plus travel time between verses. If I'd wanted to give up my Epilogue Platinum, I'd have shaved at least 11 minutes off my time, because that's how much I added to my original record when I went back to do the Alfheim and play around with Jeanne. On top of that I could have redone chapter 10, skipping unnecessary verses to cut my final time down even further. My original Normal total time was something like 5:50. Anyone having problems trimming the fat probably just needs to remember the clock is ticking between verses.
